History
by Kansas J. Miller
Summary: They keep shooting at the same old target (CJ-Ben)


FICLET: History  
  
AUTHOR: Kansas J. Miller  
  
RATING: PG  
  
PAIRING: CJ/Ben  
  
SUMMARY: Maybe they keep shooting at the same old target just because it's the thing they've always done. Maybe it's because no one better has come along for either of them. Maybe it's because no one will.  
  
SPOILERS: S5  
  
NOTE: We know absolutely nada about Ben thus far, except for the fact that he keeps calling CJ, so I'm making this up. Enjoy.  
  
~*~  
  
He thinks she's gotten more beautiful with the years. In fact, he knows it. Not that she wasn't gorgeous in college, all long and lanky, made up of lines and geometry. She was too thin, then, though, and now she's grown into her body. She exudes confidence. She *is* confidence. He sees it when he watches her briefings on cable, and he hears it in her voice when they talk on the phone.  
  
Not, he smirks to himself as the stewardess explains yet again how to buckle a seatbelt, that CJ makes herself easily available. He knows her assistant better than he knows some of his neighbors, and he knows that CJ is just playing with him. She likes to leave him hanging, wondering if maybe this time the calls or e-mails won't be returned. Sometimes she calls, sometimes she won't, but she'll never talk to him at the office. Maybe that's why he keeps dialing the White House, and maybe that's why she particularly likes 'getting around' to calling him back before five in the morning. She's woken him up more times than necessary, even though she knows he doesn't go to sleep until three. It humors him more than it irritates him, and that is why he's on the plane.  
  
It was a long time ago, a different lifetime even, that they started up. They were crazy college kids, too young to know what they were doing, too smart to realize that they were so stupid. She was too much of a force for anyone to take for long, and Ben knows that's why he spends so much time missing her when they're apart, clashing with her when they are together. Every time their flame re-ignites, they discover the same thing that they learned the time before. Six months is about all they can manage before it ends. And they always fly their separate ways, and a year later, he'll start thinking about the smooth curve of her hip and she'll fall all over again for his radio voice.  
  
As the plane takes off, Ben wonders if this time might be different, just like all the times before that he's wondered the same thing, only to wind up disappointed. Maybe they keep shooting at the same old target just because it's the thing they've always done. Maybe it's because no one better has come along for either of them. Maybe it's because no one will. Whatever the reason, Ben looks forward to Washington - he looks forward to seeing her again, to holding her again, and to kissing her and making love to her all over again. She knows he's coming - she told him he wasn't going to get his answers over the phone, and so he bought the plane ticket. Not one to jinx himself or get hopes up too high, he's also booked on a return flight that leaves in a week's time. Before going to the airport with just a small bag, Ben left a message with Carol - knowing that Carol was the closest thing to CJ that he would reach today. At least, he smiles as the stewardess brings him a cup of coffee, until he touches down in D.C.  
  
~*~  
  
"Was he for real, or was this just funny?" CJ rolls her eyes, stopping in the doorway to her office as her assistant gives her Ben's message.  
  
Carol raises her brow. "It sounded pretty real."  
  
CJ shakes her head, turns, and walks deliberately to her desk, dropping down the stack of books she was holding. "Great."  
  
"So, um, should I find out if the flight is still on time?" Carol asks tentatively, taking a few steps into the office. She is slightly, if not totally, consumed with Mystery Ben. He really does have a radio voice. He's friendly, funny, and always patient, even when CJ has ordered his calls to be put on hold.  
  
CJ is sitting behind her desk, purposefully typing away at her laptop. She gives little thought to Carol's question, not bothering to look up at the brunette. "Find out, write it down, and if I'm not too busy or disinterested when the time comes, I may or may not go down and pick him up."  
  
Carol feels like being bold, she feels like saying something that might get some kind of reaction. "CJ, I don't get it. He seems like such a great guy. He seems totally crazy about you. Why are you so-"  
  
"Weary? It's called history, Carol," CJ says dryly as she lowers her laptop. "We have a long history. We're doing," she starts with a sigh, "just what we've always done."  
  
"And it never works out?" Carol asks curiously.  
  
"Not for long," CJ opens the laptop again, slips her glasses on, and indicates that the conversation is over. "Get me the flight information."  
  
Carol dutifully returns to her area, finds Ben's scribbled message, and picks up the phone. They've got Washington/Dulles airport on speed dial, and it's not long until Carol is writing a new message for CJ.  
  
~*~  
  
Ben is tired when the flight finally lands at Dulles. Alaska to D.C. is no picnic, and his layover in Chicago was just a brisk sprint through O'Hare; he barely made his connection, and he spent his last ninety minutes on a plane formulating what he will say to her when he sees her.  
  
He is pretty sure she'll be at the airport to meet him. If Carol has passed along the message - and from what he's learned of Carol, Ben expects nothing less - it is hit or miss whether or not CJ will choose to come down - at least until the last minute. No matter how much she tells herself she's not going to pick him up, she'll watch the clock with indignation, and then reach for her coat and purse right before it's just a little too late.  
  
When the plane finally taxis off the runway and stops at the terminal, Ben collects his carry-on. He's always traveled light, unlike the woman he's coming to see. He can still recall ten years ago, when they'd met up in Seattle. It had been for three days, but she'd brought enough clothes to last three weeks, and Ben had found himself in trouble when he'd overanalyzed *that*.  
  
He is one of the first off the plane, and he tries not to look around like he's expecting her. She'll be more endeared if he acts like he's surprised that she's there, but the truth is, he knows she's somewhere in the terminal, maybe watching, certainly waiting to see what he does and where he heads.  
  
He stops purposefully to tie his shoe, knowing it buys him some time. He stands, unzips his bag and shakes out the jacket he's carried from Alaska. It's cold in D.C., too, and as he slips into the coat, Ben allows his eyes a moment to sweep around the terminal. He doesn't see her, and so he zippers the coat and reaches for his cell phone. He'll call a cab, maybe, or he could try her office. Not that she'll let his call through. Maybe she didn't get the message, Ben wonders as he begins to walk. Or maybe she did, and she just doesn't care. Maybe this time it really is over.  
  
"Do we know each other?"  
  
He spins around at the sound of her voice. It is a sound he'd know anywhere, and he finds here there, wool overcoat hanging open to reveal one of the power suits he finds so sexy. He grins down at her as they stop and stand still, her eyes roving all over his face. She breaks into a grin that matches his, and Ben can't help but laugh. "You do look familiar to me, now that I think about it."  
  
They exchange no words as they embrace, and as Ben tightens his arms around CJ's body, he hopes that he won't need his return plane ticket. * 


End file.
